Reading for Gist, Answering Text-Dependent Questions,
and Determining Author’s Purpose:
Industrial Organic Food Chain
Grade 8: Module 4: Unit 1: Lesson 5
Reading for Gist, Answering Text-Dependent Questions, and Determining Author’s Purpose: Industrial Organic Food Chain
Long-Term Targets Addressed (Based on ELA CCSS)
I can determine a theme or the central ideas of an informational text. (RI.8.2)
I can determine the meaning of words and phrases in text (figurative, connotative, and technical meanings). (RI.8.4)
I can determine an author’s point of view or purpose in informational text. (RI.8.6)
I can analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. (RI.8.6)
I can identify the argument and specific claims in a text. (RI.8.8)
Supporting Learning Targets / Ongoing Assessment
• I can find the gist of pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
• I can read closely to answer questions about pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
• I can describe the purpose of Michael Pollan in the excerpt from The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
• I can identify the conflicting evidence and viewpoints Michael Pollan has used and explain how he responds to them. / • Gist annotated on sticky notes
• New vocabulary on word-catcher
• Answers to text-dependent questions
• Author’s Purpose graphic organizer
Agenda / Teaching Notes
1. Opening
A. Engaging the Reader: Pages 91-98 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (6 minutes)
B. Unpacking Learning Targets (2 minutes)
2. Work Time
A. Reading for Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (7 minutes)
A. Text-Dependent Questions, Pages 131-134 (10 minutes)
B. Determining Author’s Purpose and Conflicting Evidence or Viewpoints (15 minutes)
3. Closing and Assessment
A. Sharing Author’s Purpose Graphic Organizers (5 minutes)
4. Homework
A. Read Chapter 11 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and fill out your Food Chain graphic organizer for the industrial organic food chain based on what you have read in Chapters 10 and 11. Remember to record any new vocabulary on your word-catcher. / • This is the first in the two-lesson cycle in which students build background knowledge about Michael Pollan’s industrial organic food chain.
• In order to gradually be released to work independently in preparation for the mid-unit assessment, students work in pairs without teacher modeling to find the gist and to answer text-dependent questions.
• In advance: Read pages 131-134 (from “The Birth of Organic Food” to “Hippie Food”) considering the gist of each paragraph, the answers to the text-dependent questions students are asked, and the author’s purpose and conflicting evidence and viewpoints (see the answer key for the text-dependent questions and Author’s Purpose graphic organizer in supporting materials).
• Post: Learning targets.
gist, author’s purpose, conflicting evidence and viewpoints; fossil fuels, pesticides, synthetic, corrupt, immoral, DDT, principles, additives / • The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Young Readers Edition (book; one per student)
• Food Chain graphic organizer (begun in Lesson 2; one per student and one to display)
• Industrial Food Chain graphic organizer (answers, for teacher reference; from Lesson 4)
• Reading Closely: Guiding Questions handout (one for display; from Lesson 2)
• Sticky notes (at least 10 per student)
• Word-catcher (from Lesson 2; students may need a new copy if they filled out the one they have)
• Dictionaries (enough for students to be able to reference them quickly while reading)
• Text-Dependent Questions: Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (one per student)
• Text-Dependent Questions: Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (answers, for teacher reference)
• Pages 131-134 Author’s Purpose graphic organizer (one per student)
• Pages 131-134 Author’s Purpose graphic organizer (answers, for teacher reference)
• Food Chain graphic organizer (from Lesson 2; new blank copy; one per student)
Opening / Meeting Students’ Needs
A. Engaging the Reader: Pages 91-98 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (6 minutes)
• Be sure students have their text, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Remind students that for homework they were to read pages 91-98 and finish filling out their Food Chain graphic organizer for the industrial food chain.
• Select students to share what they recorded on their organizers. Use student ideas to add to the Food Chain graphic organizer that you began filling out with the class in the previous lesson. See the Industrial Food Chain graphic organizer (answers, for teacher reference) to guide students toward the information their notes should include. Invite students to add to and revise their organizers where they think necessary based on what they hear from other students. / • Opening the lesson by asking students to share their homework makes them accountable for completing the homework. It also gives you the opportunity to monitor which students have not been completing their homework.
B. Unpacking Learning Targets (2 minutes)
• Invite students to read the learning targets with you:
* “I can find the gist of pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
* “I can read closely to answer questions about pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
* “I can describe the purpose of Michael Pollan in the excerpt from The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
* “I can identify the conflicting evidence and viewpoints Michael Pollan has used and explain how he responds to them.”
• Remind students that they have already seen these learning targets in the previous lessons and of what the gist, author’s purpose, and conflicting evidence and viewpoints mean. / • Learning targets are a research-based strategy that helps all students, especially challenged learners.
• Posting learning targets allows students to reference them throughout the lesson to check their understanding. The learning targets also provide a reminder to students and teachers about the intended learning behind a given lesson or activity.
• Reviewing academic vocabulary words benefits all students developing academic language.
Work Time / Meeting Students’ Needs
A. Reading for Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (7 minutes)
• Focus students on the description of the industrial organic food chain on page 5. Invite students to read that food chain again to refresh their memory of what it is about.
• Tell students they are going to read pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma for the gist. Remind them that they should have already done a first read of these pages when they read Chapter 10 for homework.
• Remind students of Topic, Information, and Ideas on the Questioning Texts row of the Reading Closely: Guiding Questions handout.
• Tell students that they are going to reread from “The Birth of Organic Food” on page 131 to “Hippie Food” on page 134 for the gist.
• Remind students to write their annotations of the gist of each paragraph on sticky notes to stick in the margin of the book. Ask them to use their word-catcher to record any new vocabulary. Remind students that if they aren’t sure what the word means after looking for context clues and looking in the dictionary, they should leave the Definition column blank to be discussed with the whole group later.
• Pair students up and invite them to work together to find the gist and record unfamiliar words on their word-catchers for pages 131-134.
• Circulate and support students as they read. For those who need more support, ask them to practice telling you the gist of a section before they write it in the margin.
• Invite students to pair up with a different student to compare what they wrote for their gist statements and to help each other with any unfamiliar vocabulary they haven’t been able to figure out the meaning of.
• Refocus the whole group and invite them to share any unfamiliar vocabulary words they found on pages 131-134 along with the definition. Where students were unable to work out the definition from the context or find it in a dictionary, encourage other students to assist them with the definition. To keep things moving, if no one else knows what the word means, tell students what it means.
• Students may struggle with the following words, so be sure to address them here: fossil fuels, pesticides, synthetic, corrupt, immoral, DDT, principles, additives. / • Reviewing academic vocabulary words benefits all students developing academic language. Consider allowing students to grapple with a complex text before explicit teaching of vocabulary. After students have read for the gist, they can identify challenging vocabulary for themselves. Teachers can address student-selected vocabulary as well as predetermined vocabulary upon subsequent encounters with the text. However, in some cases and with some students, pre-teaching selected vocabulary may be necessary.
• Inviting students to say the gist aloud to a partner or the teacher before writing can give them the confidence to record their ideas and ensure they know what to write.
Work Time (continued) / Meeting Students’ Needs
• The word “compromise” is particularly important for students to know before the work on conflicting viewpoints and evidence in the next lesson. Remind students to record new words on their word-catcher.
B. Text-Dependent Questions, Pages 131-134 (10 minutes)
• Invite students to get into the triads they have been working with in this unit. Tell them that now they are going to dig deeper into this section of the text to understand it fully.
• Distribute Text-Dependent Questions: Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
• Tell students they are going to work through the questions on this handout. Remind them of the Teammates Consult protocol in which they discuss the answer and come to an agreement in their triad before they all pick up their pens to write the answer together.
• Circulate to assist students in answering the questions. Ask questions to encourage students to refer to the text:
* “How did you come to that answer? Can you use a detail from the text to support your answer? Can you point out to that answer in the text?”
• Invite students to pair up with someone else from another triad to discuss and compare their answers. Invite students to revise their answers if they think it’s necessary based on what they see in the answers of the person they are working with. / • Text-dependent questions can be answered only by referring explicitly to the text being read. This encourages students to reread the text for further analysis and allows for a deeper understanding.
• Some students may benefit from having access to “hint cards,” small slips of paper or index cards that they turn over for hints about how/where to find the answers to text-dependent questions. For example, a hint card might say, “Check back in the third paragraph on page 2.”
• Use of protocols (like Teammates Consult) allows for total participation of students. It encourages critical thinking, collaboration, and social construction of knowledge. It also helps students to practice their speaking and listening skills.
Work Time (continued) / Meeting Students’ Needs
C. Determining Author’s Purpose and Conflicting Evidence or Viewpoints (15 minutes)
• Distribute Pages 131-134: Author’s Purpose graphic organizer. Ask students to reread pages 131-134 keeping the questions on this graphic organizer in mind.
• Invite students to work in pairs to fill out their graphic organizer as they did in the previous lesson.
• Circulate to assist students in filling out their organizer. Ask:
* “What is the author’s purpose for this extract of text? How do you know?
* “What details can you find in the text to support your claim about author’s purpose?”
* “What claim is the author making?”
* “What evidence does he use to support his claim?”
* “What conflicting viewpoints has the author put forward? Why?”
* “How has the author responded to the conflicting viewpoints? / • Graphic organizers and recording forms engage students more actively and provide the necessary scaffolding that is especially critical for learners with lower levels of language proficiency and/or learning.
Closing and Assessment / Meeting Students’ Needs
A. Sharing Author’s Purpose Graphic Organizers (5 minutes)
• Invite students to pair up with someone from another triad to share their Pages 131-134: Author’s Purpose graphic organizer and to add information or make revisions to their organizer where they think it’s necessary.
• Distribute a new Food Chain graphic organizer. Invite students to record “Industrial Organic” at the top of this organizer. / • Having students pair up with someone else to compare their work can give students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding, learn from peers, and improve their own work as a result.
Homework / Meeting Students’ Needs
• Read Chapter 11 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and fill out your Food Chain graphic organizer for the industrial organic food chain based on what you have read in Chapters 10 and 11. Remember to record any new vocabulary on your word-catcher.
Created by EL Education, Inc. on behalf of Public Consulting Group, Inc.
© 2013 Public Consulting Group, Inc., with a perpetual license granted toEL Education, Inc. / Common Core ELA Curriculum • G8:M4:U1:L5 • First Edition • 8
Grade 8: Module 4: Unit 1: Lesson 5
Grade 8: Module 4: Unit 1: Lesson 5
Supporting Materials
Text-Dependent Questions
Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Name:Date:
Questions / Notes
1. What does “organic” mean?
2. When did the idea of organic food catch on? Why?
3. When was the first Earth Day?
4. What are organic food co-ops?
5. What drove the food co-ops out of business?
6. Why does Michael Pollan call this food chain “industrial organic”? What factors make it industrial? What factors make it organic?
Text-Dependent Questions
Pages 131-134 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma Answers for Teacher Reference
Questions / Notes1. What does “organic” mean? / Grown without the help of fossil fuels, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers
2. When did the idea of organic food catch on? Why? / 1969, because of Rachel Carson’s book about the dangers of pesticides like DDT and the events in the news that “made people aware of the dangers of pollution”
3. When was the first Earth Day? / April 1970
4. What are organic food co-ops? / Neighbors would get together once a week and order organic vegetables from farmers. They had to agree on what to order. Often they bought whatever the local farmers had to offer.
5. What drove the food co-ops out of business? / National “organic” supermarket chains like Whole Foods.
6. Why does Michael Pollan call this food chain “industrial organic”? What factors make it industrial? What factors make it organic? / It is organic because it is “grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides,” and it is industrial because “Most organic vegetables in the U.S. are grown in large monoculture farms” and “Most of it is processed and sold by the same industrial food chain as the corn from George Naylor’s farm.”
Pages 131-134: Author’s Purpose Graphic Organizer